Silver Knights
The Silver Knights is an organization that split off from the Jedi Order when the FTA was formed, now working as an independant mercenary force within the FTA. Structure The Knights are ruled by their grand master, who appoints several Knight Captains to run smaller chapters with the help of their independantly selected Knights Lieutenants. Making up the bulk of the order are the Knight Errants. Essentially the Knight Captains lead the order, but the Grandmaster holds some sway over the Captains. There is only about 120 knights, and 60% of them are equivalent of Jedi Service Corp. and Sith Noble level when it comes to psionic powers (Class B). Purpose and Views The Knights are a religious order of ex-jedi and a few exiled Sith Lords who both left behind their previous lives to serve the people in the only way they truly believe they can: As a paid service. Abolishing politics, the Knights refuse to distinguish between costumers, how ever, while having varying moral standards, most of the Knights are ex-jedi and will not defy their own moral standards, but some amongst them are known to have grown cold and merciless. The Knights believe that the Sith's "right to lead, through the force" and the Jedi's ties to the Galactic Alliance as "protectors" are all enevitably going to lead down a dark and evil path. Realizing that psionics need to be a secular force with no ties to any religious orders, political parties or galactic factions, they strive to be a neutral party, working as mercenaries, diplomats, curriers, bodyguards and holding many other interesting jobs, they work their views and religion in quiet and generally don't meddle in public affairs, unless paid to. A deeply religious order (at least some key members of it are, and despite not forcing their views on other knights, this has become a trademark of the order), the Knights believe that the force (as they call their psionic abilities) is infact just what many other people call "Destiny" or "fate". Most modernday scientists agree that the world and the future is theoretically predictable, and that psy-users simply have the ability to defy destiny, because they are always causing enormous ripples. In order to restore balance in the universe, they must subject themselves to no leadership but their own, follow their moral codex, and aid only those who seek their aid, and never take a personal stake in anything they do. As different as night and day, the Knights are not particularily easy to figure out, many had their own reasons for joining, but most find honour in their work and believe strongly that they have, at least chosen the lesser evil. Many Knights have been trained for warfare their entire lives, to live as protectors for a system they no longer, or perhaps never cared for. Quite a few of them embrace the fact that it is their right, as well as that of any other human being, to live thier life as they want, but obviously, they cannot simply shake off who they were forged into being. This comes to view with their strict moral and honour codes, as well as their religious views and such. A lot of force users from different organizations eventually join the Silver Knights, if only to learn from more experienced and disciplined force users, but most tend to stay because of the endless possabilities, and the bonds. Most Silver Knights realize that upon joining, they can never go back. While not entirely true, the order of the Silver Knights is extremely tight knit, and the philosophies of the order eventually grow so much on the members that they end up identifying themselves as Silver Knights, and not just as rogue jedi mercs. History When the Mandalorian Wars had only just begun, the Jedi Order was forced to decide against sending Jedi to aid in the war efforts due to previous consequences of doing so. The Jedi Revan gathered a force of willing Jedi, forming the Revanchist movement. At this time, the Jedi had recently de-militarized, so they had no offical armor or armamanets and they proceeded to raid the armoury of the Galactic Alliance Senate Guard (abbivated GASG; the ceremonial elite guards that protect the politicians on the Capital World). Coincidence would have it, that the blue and relatively non-restrictive, but high quality ceremonial armor of the GASG was well suited for Jedi Combat styles. Revan ordered a high ranking Jedi Service Corps officer to commandeer a specialized battle cruiser to the moon where the Galactic Alliance were struggling for survival. Because they had to steal away into the night like thieves rather than being sent with full support, they arrived too late to save, but a few troopers, however they managed to strike a crushing blow against the Mandalorian offensive. It is said, that this is where the Crimson handprint originated, when one of the dying Republic officials placed a bloody handpring on his would-be saviours breastplate. The Jedi that had followed Revan cut all contact with the Jedi Order, following only Revan, but the Galactic Alliance saw potential allies and sent troops to be lead by the awesome fighting force that was the rogue jedi of the Mandalorian Wars. The Truth is, The Jedi Order made a statement that neither confirmed, nor declined that they were behind the jedi warriors entering the war, but considering the evidence of jedi being present in the war, everyone simply assumed that they were actually sent by the Jedi. The few politicians that knew that the Jedi had gone rogue did an amazing job covering it up, without ever making any false statements. Without recieving any more jedi support, the war was strained, as the Galactic Alliance did not have much of a standing military at the time. Revan allowed mercenary forces and voulunteers to join in the battle, simply making the rules of war up as he went along. The mercenaries would be allowed to loot the settlements that were destroyed and re-settle if they wanted to (which was actually the primary reason most of those worlds were re-populated). Under the leadership of the Crimson Guard (as the Jedi were called because of their guard armors with the crimson handprints), the Galactic Alliance crushed the enemy forces entirely, without mercy. When the knights returned from the war 5 yeasrs later, most of them had changed dramatically, they hadn't followed the teachings of the order for all of that time. Revan and quite a few of his most devoted followers never returned having chosen a different path, but those that did return would find themselves changed, and as the jedi marched down the streets of Captial City with the other soldiers, (in their, now completely Crimson Armors with a single black square on the chest, that contained the crimson handprint) they were recieved as heroes, praised to the heavens, but the Jedi Order was not as pleased. Practically all of the crimson guard that had survived the war, save for two, were expelled from the order because the council found that they no longer adhered to the Jedi Code. They were forced to turn in their lightsabers but allowed to keep their armors as they were not official Jedi equipment. Former battlemaster Aerion Zhar lead the Crimson Guard out of the Republic and into the FTA that had at the time realized from watching the Mandalorian threat being cut down as animals for slaughter, that they too needed some sort of psionic protectors. Needing new lightsabers, and deciding that it would be a bad idea to keep using the name, "the Crimson Guard", as it would soon cast a bad light over the Jedi Order. They came up with the silver crystals, and created new lightsabers using these synthetic crystals they invented and took up an official name. The Silver Knights are allowed inside Galactic Alliance space, if they agree to relinquish their lightsabers as soon as they land on a planet. Seeing as the knights are skilled in many forms of combat other than lightsaber fencing, that is usually not an issue. They have a wicked reputation in the Galactic Alliance however, often employed in the struggle of crime lords and gang wars. Respected by the police for always avoiding civilian casualties, however. In sith space, the knights are generally viewed with some mistrust due to their obvious opposed nature to the entire sith government, however, the Silver Knights are occationally hired by Darths or other nobles. For a while, it was popular for nobles to hire Knights to instruct them in lightsaber fencing, but that fancy was killed off a few years ago. The Knights are the only organization of psy-users allowed in FTA space, and several systems still outlaw them independantly. They are allowed for several reasons, the most primary one being, that they can protect the FTA to some degree against the Jedi and the Sith, despite being dimunitive in size compared to the other two organizations.